representing over 30,000 Public Transit, Para-Transit, Inter-City and School Bus workers across Canada

ATU Canada Response to “Upload – Terms of Reference” document Released by Ontario Government

Manitoba – Transit Riders in Thompson left out in the cold!

OMERS Attacks the Future of Public Pension Plans

Doug Ford throws workers under the bus with “Making Ontario Open for Business Act”

Press Release

October 23, 2018

Media Contact: John Di Nino, 416-938-0746

Toronto, ON – Calling it an attack on working Canadians and their families, the Amalgamated Transit Union Canada condemned Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government pro-business plan.

“Doug Ford and his provincial government are taking us back to the days when people couldn’t take paid sick leave, get equal pay, earn three weeks of vacation and other basic rights and protections that all workers deserve,” said ATU Canada President John Di Nino. “We condemn this bill as nothing more than a kickback to Ford’s business buddies at the expense of Canadian workers who make our country the proud nation it is.”

The proposed legislation “Making Ontario Open for Business Act” rolls back key provisions of Bill 148, labour legislation providing equal pay for part-time and temporary workers doing the same job as full-time employees, increased vacation, and expanded personal emergency leave to 10 days per year, two of them paid. In addition, the bill cancels the promise of boosting the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

“Doug Ford is throwing workers and their families under the bus with this proposed legislation. Our nation is one of the most progressive in the world and the ATU vows to stop this attempt to roll back the rights workers have fought hard for,” Di Nino continued.

Hiring a National Organizer

Kathleen Andrews Garage Unveiling

ATU Canada – Safety Barriers

TTC Upload Press Release

August 16, 2018

For Immediate Release: ATU Canada President John Di Nino

TTC Is For the Working Class and We Are Not For Sale

With Premier Ford’s announcement yesterday to upload the TTC to the province, ATU Canada is demanding that the continued gerrymandering decisions of the Progressive Conservative Government must cease immediately. ATU Canada fully agrees and supports Mayor John Tory’s statement that before any decisions are made, a robust conciliation must take place between the provincial government, the City of Toronto, TTC management, its employees and the taxpayers.

Just like the Premiers platform -which was never released- Premier Ford has no quantifiable numbers to justify uploading the transit system.

Currently, the TTC operates the most efficient transit system in North America, based on the current funding model. The TTC needs to be funded correctly to serve the citizens of Toronto. For example, years ago, York Region privatized the transit system and riders now pay more money for less service.

ATU Canada believes that the citizens of Toronto deserve reliable cost-effective transit, regardless of where they choose to live – be that in downtown Toronto or in the suburbs north of Steeles Avenue.

Premier Ford’s campaign stated that he was for the people, yet his decisions pertaining to uploading public transit are completely unfounded and for his own political gain.

Countless transit systems around the world have seen the catastrophic effects of privatization – cuts to service, increased fares, and the safety of the public. One thing remains true, the only people that benefit from the privatization of public transit are the conglomerates that own them.
Public transit was designed to get the working-class people to and from where they need to go, reliably and cost-effectively.

Election Statement

Sisters and Brothers,

It might come as no surprise that we at ATU Canada and the Keep Transit Public campaign are disappointed in the victory of Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservatives. This is a serious setback in the fight for public control and fairness for workers in Ontario.

We made a significant impact in Ontario. Through the Keep Transit Public campaign, we changed the conversation in Ontario on public transit and contracting out. We built stronger relationships with passengers, community groups and elected officials like never before. We helped catapult the Ontario NDP from third party to Official Opposition where they will provide a strong voice for transit workers and riders. These are victories worth celebrating.

While Doug Ford is celebrating today, the fight is still far from over. While incoming Premier Doug Ford has promised to “privatize everything that’s not nailed down,” we will come together to stop his cuts and to keep transit public. We will always fight for public transit workers and riders.

Municipal elections are just around the corner. We can bring a balance of power locally by working to elect municipal candidates this October who support public transit and workers. We will help elect candidates that will stand up to privatization and provincial bullying.

ATU Canada Endorses the NDP

On June 7th, Ontario voters will likely send a new premier and party to Queens Park. The Liberal Party is sinking in the polls, and the NDP has pulled ahead of the Progressive Conservatives, according to recent polling. But the race remains very, very close.

Our union has taken a stand against transit privatization and contracting out and has worked to educate our members and the public on the dangers of public-private partnerships (P3s), most notably through our Keep Transit Public campaign.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Party has encouraged the drastic rise of P3s in transit and championed large-scale contracting-out schemes through their arms-length agency, Metrolinx. Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives are the original privateers, and have a track record of favouring transit privatization and cuts to public services.

In stark contrast, the New Democrats have, again and again, come out on the side of transit workers and riders in Ontario.

In Ontario, NDP has committed to:

Fund 50 per cent of net transit and paratransit costs across the province, which will alleviate decades of disinvestment in public transit and fight off privatization attempts

Invest in and expanding transit through funding a downtown relief line in Toronto, an LRT project in Hamilton, the next phase of an LRT line in Ottawa, and introducing all-day, two-way GO rail service between Kitchener, Waterloo and Toronto and year-around GO rail service between Niagara and Toronto

Ensure Metrolinx coordinates services and schedules with local transit authorities and Via Rail

Lower fares on all GO trips within 10km of Toronto to $3

And finally, to keep transit public in Ontario and reverse the use of P3s across public sector industries, including transit

For their commitment to defending, funding, and expanding public transit and to protecting public workers and their families, ATU Canada is proud to endorse the Ontario New Democratic Party for the 2018 Ontario Provincial Election.

We encourage ATU members, their families, and the riding public to vote NDP on June 7th and help us usher in a new era of people over profit in the province.

National Transit Union Body to Province: Put the Brakes on Subway Upload

Toronto, ON – It’s Hydro all over again. The Liberal government is seeking to upload and, ultimately, privatize the TTC subways in a process they call “optimizing” under a “different ownership model.” The extreme policy shift is buried deep in a side note in a 300-page budget released Wednesday. The province is calling for the takeover of oversight, operations, and maintenance of Canada’s second busiest subway system in a move that would allow the government to privatize the 64-year old transit service. ATU Canada is calling for the removal of this article from the provincial budget and, in conjunction with ATU Local 113, is mobilizing members across the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area to oppose the proposal.

“Many Ontarians will recall that this is exactly what precipitated the disastrous sell-off of Hydro One,” said ATU Canada President Paul Thorp. “Make no mistake: turning public services into private profit centers is a plan straight out of the PC playbook. For some reason the Liberal government has embraced it and is racing to implement transit privatization across the province.” Thorp pointed to policies released last year by the Progressive Conservatives that favoured handing public transit over to private companies.

Thorp also says that the privatization of transit would not be any better for transit users and workers in Ontario than the sell-off of Hydro was for rate-payers. “The uploading of the TTC subway would prove detrimental to the millions of Torontonians and Ontarians that use that service daily,” he said. “The city of Toronto would lose local control and accountability over the daily operations and maintenance of one its more vital pieces of infrastructure, not to mention the catastrophic affect privatization can have on front line workers who see their hard-earned wages, pension, and benefits diminished by private contractors.” Thorp also noted that the TTC is an integral part of the community, employing thousands of workers from diverse economic, racial, and cultural backgrounds and allowing for a decent living in a city known for its melting-pot multiculturalism.

For the past year, ATU Canada has been coordinating a campaign—dubbed “Keep Transit Public”— in favour of public ownership and operation of transit. The campaign began in Hamilton, ON, in June 2017 and has focused on ending the use of public-private partnerships (P3s) in transit and other public services.

“Across Canada, the U.S., and Europe, private transit has proven again and again to be more costly and less safe,” Thorp said. “Private companies can and will raise fares and reduce service in pursuit of profit.”

For more information on the Keep Transit Public campaign and to sign our petition please visit keeptransitpublic.ca. The Amalgamated Transit Union represents 34,000 members across Canada including the 11,000 frontline workers of the TTC.

Have HSR operate the new LRT system, says transit union campaign

Hamilton’s transit union has launched a campaign to try to encourage public officials to hire HSR drivers to run the new light rail transit (LRT) system. To do otherwise, it says, would hand over a major transit route to a private company.

HSR Drivers Union Launches LRT Campaign

ATU Canada Demands a Stop to Bus Driver Assault and a Change to Design of Operator Workstation

Keep Transit Public. Sign the Petition Today!

Contentious CLC report on ATU crisis falls short

On March 27, CLC Investigator Barry Thorsteinson submitted an 11 page report to CLC President Hassan Yussuff on the ATU Local 113 crisis. His report notes that with the March 17 withdrawal of Bob Kinnear’s request for the CLC’s justification proceedings, the case ends with the filing of his report. No full investigation is to be conducted.ORIGINAL

The Thorsteinson report makes a number of preliminary findings. The first is that Unifor stands in violation of the CLC Constitution for its interference in this dispute. The report notes that the CLC will determine what response if appropriate.

Thorsteinson’s report also notes that the ATU has failed to cooperate fully with the justification process by ceaseless attempts to discredit the CLC and calls for the process to terminate. To a much lesser extent, during this investigation as described earlier is two specific instances of refusals to cooperate by withholding requested information.

The report also finds that President Yussuff and the CLC were not involved in any plot to assist Kinnear, or Unifor, in the justification process.

Hassan Yussuff sent a letter along with a copy of the report to the affiliates. In that brief letter he notes the investigator cleared the CLC and that he calls for unions to strengthen the Article 4 protocol.

Demonstrators, including labour and student groups, called on the government to reverse its decision to scrap the provincial bus company, saying that in addition to employees who will be out of work, rural residents and low-income earners who depend on the service will be hurt by the cut.

Seniors, students and bus drivers rally to save STC

The final days for the Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC) are ticking down, but pleas to save it have not stopped.

The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1374 organized a rally on the front steps of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building and were joined by members of CUPE, SEIU West, Students Mobilizing Against Cuts, Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry, seniors, STC riders and STC operators to call on the government to rethink its decision to decommission the STC.

Ken Younghans has been an operator for more than 20 years and although he will soon be unemployed, his main concern is about the people who ride the bus.

“I’m not happy I’m losing my job, but in the same respect, I can find another job. But the people in this province are not going to get the same quality of service they have been getting for the past 71 years,” he said after the rally. “As a taxpayer I think what this government is doing is appalling. It’s disrespectful and I think they need to wake up and smell the coffee because they are hurting a lot of people. They are hurting the people who voted them in — the rural people.”

Younghans is worried about what will happen to those who depend on the bus like seniors, the isolated and the sick.

National Day of Mourning

Friday, April 28, 2017, is the National Day of Mourning. We at ATU Canada remember those who have lost their lives or suffered an injury or illness on the job.

ATU Canada remembers and honours all fallen workers, and we fight for increased safety in the workplace.

Next stop: a better transit system?

Winnipeg transit advocates are hoping an event series could spark a movement calling for improved bus service in the City of Winnipeg.

Advocates who are worried transit is “very rarely talked about in Winnipeg” have a plan to change that this year; it involves “humanizing transit” for riders, city councillors, and soon, a new transit director.

He explained how that lack of widespread criticism and the notion that “we’re a car town because that’s what Winnipeg was built for,” has siphoned momentum off support for a better public transportation system.

The result has been, by Kornelsen’s assessment, an underfunded, infrequent service that doesn’t serve people as well as it could on many of its often circuitous routes.

“So what we’re trying to do is reframe the conversation so we’re talking about how the service actually works,” Kornelsen said. “We want to bring to the forefront what it means to have a good service, show people what an effective transit service looks like.

Winnipeggers say city needs transit police: survey

Ever since the fatal assault of a transit operator in early 2017, the local transit union has been calling for more dedicated transit police.

The union representing transit drivers has learned Winnipeggers share its desire for more dedicated police riding city buses.

Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) local President John Callahan said it’s telling that a “broad range” of residents surveyed for Probe Research between March 13 and 28 support the union’s call for increased enforcement.

“It seems to be that people using transit as well as people who are not using it hear what’s going on and understand the issue,” Callahan said, referencing the “almost daily occurrence” of operator assaults, which were brought into the public eye after one such assault in February had fatal consequences.

Of the 600 adults polled, Callahan said the fact 64 per cent agree a dedicated transit police force is needed means the union’s call for such protection isn’t just anecdotal, and wouldn’t just be welcomed by drivers who fear for their safety.
“We wanted these real numbers,” he said. “They speak for themselves.”